HEN does one replace a linen shirt? My shirt is like an old travel companion that bears all the marks and color and scars from our adventures together. It also bears the stains from lack of washing and poor care that it has received whilst we have been about our business.Thread-bare from travel through the woods, worn and patched from many an event and log hefted, soaked from a day's rain and laid out to dry in cabin windows at night, stained from walnuts as I dyed my suit of clothes over and over to keep them nice and dark. Bee's wax drippings on the cuffs, no two buttons match, patches on top of patches.
It even still bears the paint on the right arm from the young indian warrior I dispatched some years ago. I wear it with pride, and still show off the faded red and ebon trophy that nearly cost me my life.
It has come to my attention that my linen shirt requires a new collar. Now the poor old collar has grown thread bare, the linen rotting and falling away, and the stain on the back of the neck has become utterly unwashable.
A recent image of my shirt from the Raid at Martin's Station,
patches on patches & dirty collar.
An older image after a hand-to-hand battle with an indian.
Note the fresh red facepaint and hole in the shoulder.
I own other shirts mind you, better made, cleaner too, but I shall have none of them! I have always been of a loyal mind, and my old linen friend is no different. I shall have a new collar put into this shirt with a scrap of linen that came from the original piece the shirt is made from.
Did I mention, I never throw anything away?
2 comments:
absolutely what the doctor ordered, a new collar it should be, but not too new, if you know what I mean? I love those patches, by the way, I'll aspire to have my husband's shirt to go in that direction!!
I have a nightshirt that I cannot toss out - too many happy memories would go with it! It too has been mended numerous times, but it is at last unwearable. I keep it in the back of a drawer.
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